9 The past tense

When you talk about the past tense in Spanish, there are two conjugations: the preterit and the imperfect. The preterit tells things that happened just once, and imperfect tells routines or repeated events from the past. This chapter is about the preterit.

The regular conjugation in the preterit is only composed of two patterns: one for verbs ending in AR, and the other is for both verbs ending in ER and IR.

This the preterit conjugation in the regular pattern:

The stress goes in the last syllable of the STEM as underlined. The Yo and Él/Ella/Usted forms have the stress at the end of the word because the stem links to the very end. For this reason, accent marks are very important to mark the preterit.

Sample conversations

The practice focuses on YO and TÚ forms in AR verbs only. All levels can do this. B1 can choose four lines.

Asking about yesterday

Ask your partner whether he or she did something yesterday.

A: ¿___________ ayer (=yesterday)?

B: Sí, yo ________. / No, yo no ________.

Sample verbs: bailar (to dance), caminar (to walk), descansar (to rest), escuchar música (to listen music), estudiar (to study), practicar un deporte (to practice a sport), preparar comida (to prepare food), tomar un bus (to take a bus), trabajar (to work)

Asking about specific time in the past

A: ¿Cuándo descansaste?​

B: Descansé _____________. (add time expression).​

A: ¿Cuándo viajaste?​

B: Viajé  _____________. (add time expression).​

A: ¿Cuándo comiste?

B: Comí _____________. (add time expression).​

A: ¿Cuándo _________ (=tomar run)?​

B: Yo _____________ (add verb in the past) ________________. (add time expression).​​

A: ¿Cuándo ___________ (=hablar, talk) con tu familia?​

B: Yo _____________ (add verb in the past) con mi familia _____________. (add time expression).​​

A: ¿Cuándo ________ (=bailar)?​

B: Yo________ (=bailar) _____________. (add time expression)​

A: ¿Cuándo ___________ (=comprar) algo (=to buy something)?​

B: Yo _________ (=comprar) algo _____________. (add time expression).​

• Tarde: late
• Por la tarde: in the afternoon
• Más tarde: later on
• Mañana: tomorrow
• Por la mañana: in the morning
• Anoche: last night
• Esta noche: this night, tonight
• La semana pasada: the past week
• El mes pasado: the past month
• El año pasado:the past year
• Ayer: yesterday
• El otro año, el próximo año: the next year
• El otro mes, el próximo mes: the next month